{"id":64766,"date":"2019-10-04T16:21:32","date_gmt":"2019-10-04T22:21:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-man-dies-messing-around-with-colt-45\/"},"modified":"2019-10-04T22:21:32","modified_gmt":"2019-10-04T22:21:32","slug":"durango-man-dies-messing-around-with-colt-45","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/durango-man-dies-messing-around-with-colt-45\/","title":{"rendered":"Durango man dies \u2018messing around\u2019 with Colt .45"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

A Durango man died by a self-inflicted gunshot to the head early Thursday in Durango while using a weapon he believed to be unloaded, according to the La Plata County coroner.<\/p>\n

Steve Torres, 21, was \u201cmessing around\u201d with a Colt .45 in a home in the 500 block of East Fourth Avenue a little after midnight, said Coroner Jann Smith.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe (Torres) had the gun. His friend said, \u2018Would you put it away.\u2019 He said, \u2018It\u2019s not loaded, see.\u2019 (He) put it up to his head and it went off,\u201d Smith said. \u201c\u2026 It was pretty evident what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

Durango Police Department did not immediately respond to a call for comment.<\/p>\n

The Coroner\u2019s Office performed a toxicology exam on Torres\u2019 body and is awaiting results about whether drugs or alcohol are involved.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not sure it would be classified as a suicide,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n

James Swantner, who met Torres in 2014 and lived with him for more than a year, said his late friend had a \u201csuper generous soul.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was a great friend to me and he always put my concerns and cares first,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know anybody when I moved here \u2013 him and his group of friends were open and helped me form the life I have today.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torres \u201cpretty much grew up on Purgatory and in the Dalton Ranch area,\u201d Swantner said. \u201cHe taught me how to snowboard, he always seemed most at home on his board.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2026 He had a really funny sense of humor. He was always cracking jokes, definitely one of those awkward kids; very awkward and funny kind of guy,\u201d he said of Torres. \u201cHe was always playing jokes and being a fun loving guy, always looking to have a good time\u2026 he was really good at finding those.\u201d<\/p>\n

They would take trips into the mountains to go hiking, climbing, snowshoeing and snowboarding. \u201cWe\u2019d just jump in the car,\u201d Swantner said.<\/p>\n

But the two grew apart after Swantner moved to Telluride and now Grand Junction.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was always like a little brother I wanted to spend time with,\u201d he said. \u201cI didn\u2019t get the time to spend with him that I wanted to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Torres worked in Durango, the coroner said. His family has been notified of his death and funeral arrangements have been made, Smith said.<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Torres, 21, died Thursday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":64767,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[255,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-64766","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-death-and-dying","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64766","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64766"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64766\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64767"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64766"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64766"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64766"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=64766"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}